Taunton City Council to receive update on industrial park development

Monday

Apr 14, 2014 at 4:02 PMApr 14, 2014 at 10:13 PM

Charles Winokoor Taunton Gazette Staff Reporter @cwinokoor

TAUNTON — The City Council’s Committee of the Council as a Whole will meet this week with representatives of the Taunton Development Corp. for an update on phases four and five of Myles Standish Industrial Park.

The committee is scheduled to sit down with TDC President Louis Riccardi and part-time project manager Dick Shafer.

The nonprofit TDC is now in partnership with the state’s quasi-public agency MassDevelopment to develop the park’s final two phases for new industrial-based businesses and for a life sciences educational/training center.

Both Shafer and Riccardi previously have hinted that one or two major companies are interested in moving into those areas of the industrial park, but they have yet to reveal their identities.

The TDC and MassDevelopment in 2011 paid $1 for 220 acres of former Paul A. Dever State School, state-owned surplus land adjacent the park, with the understanding they would pay to demolish old buildings and clean the site of contamination.

Shafer previously served as Taunton’s economic development director.

A motion made last week in regard to illegal use of off-road ATVs in the area of Baker Road East, O’Connell Avenue and Fifth Street will be re-visited at Tuesday’s council meeting.

This time, however, the issue will be discussed by the Committee on Police and License. The council last week noted numerous complaints by residents about people racing the quads, not just along railroad beds, but on streets.

Residents have also complained that a local gas station owner has allowed ATV drivers to gas up at his business.

It is illegal to drive an ATV on streets or anywhere in the state not specifically designated for their use.

In other agenda items, the committee of a whole will meet with housing authority executive director Colleen Doherty for an update on the Hope VI Grant project replacing the former Fairfax Gardens public housing project.

New housing units are now being built both at the DeWert Avenue site of the former apartment complex and also at what was known as Parcel 6A, located off of Washington Street behind the Bloom Bus and GATRA bus facility.